Might I’ve a phrase with you, please? Truly, two phrases. Mind rot. You simply by no means know what sort of shock awaits you whenever you try this area, do you? I’ve the sensation mind rot wasn’t in your radar. Mine both, till I learn that the swells who run the Oxford English Dictionary have chosen it as their phrase of the 12 months for 2024. I believe we are able to all agree that mind rot is 2 phrases. I can solely assume the swells suppose our brains are already so decomposed, we wouldn’t discover the distinction.
To clarify – and this one wants a little bit of clarification – the lexicographers at Oxford choose a phrase of the 12 months yearly for causes that escape me and this 12 months the phrase for 2024 is mind rot. They arrived at their conclusion, they are saying, after a public vote wherein greater than 37,000 individuals named it their best choice. Clearly, they didn’t ask me. I might have mentioned it was a silly alternative, whether or not one or two phrases.
Mind rot beat out a number of different contenders for 2024, together with slop. What a disgrace. Slop would have made phrase of the 12 months and would have given hogs some well-deserved consideration. It’s not straightforward being porcine.
So, what’s mind rot? Oxford defines the time period as “the supposed deterioration of an individual’s psychological or mental state, particularly considered as the results of overconsumption of fabric (now notably on-line content material) thought-about to be trivial or unchallenging.” Hopefully, they aren’t speaking about this column. I work very exhausting to carry you materials to devour that’s not trivial and on the similar time very difficult. If I assumed one thing I mentioned was rotting your mind, I may by no means forgive myself.
To not let the Oxford crowd get all the eye, Dictionary.com got here up with its personal phrase of the 12 months: Demure. I like slop quite a bit higher. They justify their alternative by saying “demure skilled a meteoric rise in utilization in 2024. This sharp rise is especially attributed to TikToker Jools Lebron’s popularization of the phrase ‘very demure, very conscious’ in a collection of movies posted to the platform in early August.” I do not know what they’re speaking about or who Jools Lebron is. I’m very conscious I must get out extra.
In the meantime, Cambridge College, which often waxes Oxford in rugby and rowing, additionally has a phrase of the 12 months: Manifest, that means “to make use of particular practices to focus your thoughts on one thing you need, to attempt to make it grow to be a actuality.” They declare the phrase manifest was regarded up virtually 130,000 instances on the Cambridge Dictionary web site, making it one of the considered phrases of 2024. It wouldn’t shock me of it was that crowd from Oxford attempting to manifest methods to beat Cambridge at rugby and rowing.
So, why am I risking severe mind rot speaking about these items with you? It’s as a result of I do know you have got excessive expectations of me and are questioning why I haven’t given you some phrases of the 12 months of your personal on to toss round on the subsequent church social or cocktail get together. I admit I’ve been derelict in my responsibility.
Due to this fact, I contacted my very own private lexicographers, Barney Funk and Porter Wagnalls, for some assist. They at all times appear to be glad to listen to from me. The previous few years haven’t been good ones for Funk and Wagnalls. Who desires to listen to in regards to the Franco-Prussian Struggle of 1870 whenever you’ve received Jools Lebron being demure on Tik Tok?
After an intensive analysis, they recommended I think about as a phrase of the 12 months, “hiyall,” that means “Hiya. How are you? Welcome South. Simply don’t make enjoyable of how we discuss or you’ll be able to return the place it snows 10 months a 12 months and all of your buildings are rusted.” One other candidate for phrase of the 12 months? Okefenokee, a phrase of the 12 months for this 12 months and subsequent 12 months, too. It means Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals must drill for toothpaste whitener someplace aside from in our beloved Okefenokee Nationwide Wildlife Refuge swamp. Possibly downtown Birmingham? And take our wimpy politicians with you.
Developing with phrases of the 12 months is simply one of many methods I attempt to serve you though I believe you’d simply as quickly see me put commas the place they belong and depart the flamboyant stuff to the swells, lest I get all demure and manifest mind rot.
You’ll be able to attain Dick Yarbrough at dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Field 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.
